AMD Radeon HD 7990 details leaked as Nvidia GTX 680 launches

AMD has been on a roll of late, with six new 7000-series graphics cards in the first quarter of this year alone. Now we’re hearing details about team red’s upcoming range-topping, dual GPU Radeon HD 7990 model, which could be here as early as next month, after Chinese website inpai.com.cn leaked the specifications.

It’s no surprise we’re hearing details about the new dual-GPU card just now, with team green’s Kepler GK-104 based GTX 680 announced earlier today. The new Nvidia offering takes the crown from AMD’s current top model, claiming the title as the fastest single-GPU graphics card available.

According to the leaked specifications, the HD 7990 will feature two Tahiti-XT 7970 graphics cores using the 28nm architecture, with 8.6-billion transistors and 4,096 processors combined, a total of 256 texture units, 64 ROPs, and a massive 6GB of GDDR5 memory shared across both of the GPUs using two 384-bit channels.

As with the previous dual-GPU release, each GPU-core will be clocked slightly lower than their respective HD 7970 models, at 850MHz (HD 7970 has 925MHz) with the frame buffer set at an effective 5,000MHz, which again is 500MHz lower per GPU-core than the HD 7970 is clocked at.

There is currently no word on the TDP wattage, or the number of power connections, though it is very likely it will employ two 8-pin sockets. There is also no news on crossfire support either, but it is safe to assume that you’ll be able to at least pair them up in crossfire, as with the previous generation HD 6990.

Whilst there is no word on pricing either, it won’t be cheap and it’s unlikely to find its way into all but the most die-hard of enthusiast’s computers. The steep cost aside, given the very positive recent reviews of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 this new dual-GPU model will pack a monstrous punch.

AMD did not respond to requests for further comment, but for now it remains to be seen whether this is a paper exercise to knock the wind out of the GTX 680’s release. Should the leaked information turn out to be correct, the new dual GPU card will hit store shelves in April.